Global Food Prices Hit Record Highs in January & Will Stay That Way For Months: UN FAO

No need to rehash how rising food prices are at least a strong background component of the ongoing uprisings in the Middle East, and have figured heavily in plenty of similar events historically, but the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has just released some new data showing that global food prices hit a new record high in January and that similarly high prices and upward pressure on them is likely to "persist for months to come."

The FAO Food Price Index, which monitors monthly price changes for a basket of commodities, averaged 231 points in January--up 3.4 percent from December and its highest level since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990.

Particularly high price increases were seen in dairy products, oil, and fats. Grains were up less sharply but still saw notable increases. Meat prices were largely stable on a global basis.

Read more: Raw StoryIndia's Crop Yields Could Decline by 30% by 2020At the same time researchers in India are making the connection (again) between climate change and decreasing crop yields there. Via UPI:

India would be the hardest hit by climate change in terms of food production, said a study, "The Food Gap -- The Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production: A 2020 Perspective" released last month by the Universal Ecological Fund. The report predicts that crop yield in India would decrease by as much as 30 percent by the end of the decade.